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Livorno: a Crossroads in the History of Sephardic Religious Music Prof

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Livorno: a Crossroads in the History of Sephardic Religious Music Prof Page 1 of 12 Livorno: A Crossroads in the History of Sephardic Religious Music Prof. Edwin Seroussi This article appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Notes from Zamir. From "The Mediterranean and the Jews: Society, Culture and Economy in Early Modern Times", edited by Elliott Horowitz and Moises Orfali I. INTRODUCTION The geographical location of Italy at the focal point of the Mediterranean cultures is reflected in the music traditions of its Jewish communities. Throughout the centuries, several musical traditions developed among Italian Jews: the "Italiano" rite (centered in Rome), the "Tedesco" (German, i.e. Ashkenazic) tradition in the North and, from the early 16th century, several Sephardic traditions of different geographical origin (Greece, Turkey, North Africa and, later on, Western Europe) *1 The vitality of these distinctive traditions declined steadily from the late 19th century, and even more sharply after World War II. The influence of Italian art music, particularly noticeable from the 19th century on, was also a significant factor in the shaping of their present state. Surviving synagogue music from Italy thus shows traces of the interaction between different traditions. *2 Detailed studies of selected traditions should, therefore, precede any comprehensive study of ltalian synagogue music. *3 I shall focus here on the synagogue music from Livorno (Leghorn) from the 18th century onwards. I would like to stress in particular the role played by this community as a cultural crossroads, that is, as a location where the carriers of different Sephardic traditions from the Eastern and Western Mediterranean encountered and enriched each other. In the 18th century the community of Livorno inherited the leadership of the Sephardic Jews in Italy from the community of Venice, as Bonfil (1992) has already stressed. This statement is true also in respect to synagogue music. In the introduction to the collection of Sephardic liturgical music from Italy by the Jewish violinist, composer, and scholar from Livorno, Federico Consolo (Jehiel Nahmani Sefardi, 1841--1906; see Di Mauro), the compiler states: Rituale ebraico spagnuolo della Comunit~i israelitica di Livorno, sentito dalla viva voce del primo cantore di quel Tempio, signor [Moise] Ventufa [1845-1920]... Fu preferito il rituale di Livorno, perche si pub dire che la tradizione musicale del rito giudaico spagnuolo si sia qui conservata meglio che altrove (Consolo, 1892: 3). Melodies from the Italian-Sephardic synagogue tradition as practiced in Livorno were transmitted to other Sephardic communities in Italy and around the Mediterranean in the early 20th century. Bucharest, Alexandria (Egypt), Marseilles (France), Tunis (Tunisia), Tripoli (Libya), Rhodes (which was under Italian rule between the world wars) and Gibraltar are all communities where Livornese-trained cantors served and introduced melodies from their musical heritage. *4 The choral tradition from Livorno spread to other cities in Italy, particularly to Florence, superseding the old Italian rite. *5 The Livornese influence in the shaping of 20th-century Sephardic liturgical music in other locations inside and outside Italy, an issue treated here only briefly, certainly merits a detailed study.6 II. RESEARCH ON ITALIAN SYNAGOGUE MUSIC Thorough research of the musical traditions of the Italian Jews is still a desideratum. Substantial contributions in this http://www.zamir.org/Features/Italy/Seroussi.shtml 8/31/2008 Page 2 of 12 field were made by the late Dr. Leo Levi (see Levi, 1957; 1961; 1972). Levi focused on a wide overview of the subject based on his pioneering ethnographic effort carried out in Italy in the 1950s under the auspices of the Centro Nazionale di Studi di Musica Populare in Rome (Levi, 1961). His collection of recordings is still to be found in different copies--- in Rome at the Archivi di Etnomusicologia of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, at the Discoteca di Stato and at the Centro Bibliografico of the UCEI (Union of Jewish Communities in Italy); additional copies are located at the National Sound Archives of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, and at the library of the Italian Synagogue in Jerusalem (on Levi and his work see Spagnolo, 1998). Another scholar who contributed significantly to the historical study of music among Jews in Italy is Israel Adler. Adler based his research on written sources, focusing on the incorporation of Western art music into Italian synagogues in the 17th and 18th centuries (see Adler, 1966, especially vol. 1, pp. 114-116 on Livorno; 1967). Later bibliographical research by Adler has brought to light new notated documentation of Sephardic synagogue music from Livorno (Adler, 1989, nos. 015, 144). In addition to Leo Levi and Israel Adler, Isaac Levy, who included many transcriptions from Italian cantors residing in Israel in his anthology of Sephardic hazzanut (1964-80), should be mentioned. Elio Piattelli (1992) has published a comprehensive collection of melodies from the Sephardic synagogue in Florence. Few other endeavors to research the musical traditions of the Jews from Italy were carried out in Israel (Fiderer-Abramovicz, 1987) and Italy (Torrefranca, 1996). The developed synagogal music of Livorno was known in Germany too. In 1818, when the first attempts to introduce musical changes (choral music and the organ) in the Reform synagogue of Hamburg were carried out, the leaders of this new movement appealed to Livornese rabbis for support (Benayahu, 1987). Despite the availability of substantial materials from oral tradition gathered by Leo Levi, Israel Adler, Isaac Levy, Elio Piatelli and others, the research of major issues in the musical culture of Italian Jewry is far from exhausted. Major exceptions are the intensive study of the life and works of the 17th-century Jewish composer Salamone Rossi, author of the unique collection of polyphonic Hebrew works Hashirim asher li-Shelomo, the major monument of Italian synagogue music prior to the 19th century (see Adler, 1967; Harráin 1987a, 1987b, 1989a, 1989b, and especially 1999; Torrefranca, 1989) and the study of the Hebrew melodies from the Venetian synagogues notated by the Christian composer Benedetto Marcello in the early 18th century (Marcello, 1724-27; see Werner, 1937 and Seroussi, forthcoming) * III. SOURCES ON THE LIVORNESE JEWISH TRADITION There are four major sources for the study of the Livornese tradition: 1. The oral tradition, as recorded by Leo Levi. Most of these recordings are by Rabbi Elio Toaff (b. 1916), heir of one of the most prominent Livornese Jewish families and, today, Chief Rabbi of Rome. 2. The printed collection compiled by Federico Consolo, Libro di canti d'Israele. Antichi canti del rito degli ebrei Spagnoli (Firenze, 1892). 3. Manuscripts of choral music from Livorno found in the Birnbaum collection of Jewish Music in the Hebrew Union College and in the Music Department of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. These materials date from the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. 4. Literary sources which can be divided into: a. Prayer books and song collections; b. Descriptions of musical activities and mentions of musicians in periodicals and books. An important, unpublished source for the research of the Livornese synagogue music is a series of letters written by Italian scholars to A.Z. Idelsohn, in response to his inquiries on the music of Italian Jews. From early 1933 until 1934 http://www.zamir.org/Features/Italy/Seroussi.shtml 8/31/2008 Page 3 of 12 Idelsohn communicated with Prof. Umberto Cassuto, then at the University of Rome, Ernesto Ventufa, choir director from Livorno, and the lawyer Giuseppe Bassani from Ferrara. *7 On the basis of the data sent by Bassani in September 1934, Idelsohn published a study of the Tedesco (German) tradition in Italy (Idelsohn, 1936). However, he never released the information sent to him by Cassuto and Ventufa on the synagogue music of Livorno. What transpires from these various sources is that the Livornese synagogue music consists of a synthesized patchwork where several Sephardic traditions merge. This synthesis symbolizes the peculiar history of this particular community: its converso, Portuguese origins; its position as a center of learning, attracting Jews from North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean; and the accelerated process of modernization that characterized most Italian Jewish communities from the second half of the 19th century on. Thus, in the sources from Livorno we find Spanish-Portuguese traditions common to the synagogues from Amsterdam, London, and Hamburg; traditions from Morocco, Tunisia, and Salonika; and, finally, original compositions in the Baroque, Classic, and Romantic styles of Westem art music and choral arrangements of traditional melodies written by professional composers who served the Livornese community. Pieces from the repertoires of synagogues in other Italian cities (Venice in particular) and from Paris are also found in Livornese sources. IV. THE 18th CENTURY The earliest musical scores from Jewish Livorno are connected to the kabbalist Rabbi Raphael Emmanuel Hay Ricchi (Ferrara 1688---Modena 1743). After serving as Rabbi in Florence and Trieste, he taught in Venice and was a student of kabbalah in Safed (1718-20); he settled in Livorno in 1723. During his stay there he frequently traveled abroad to the East (Constantinople, Izmir, Salonika) as well as to other Portuguese communities in Europe (Amsterdam and London).
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